bank of america mowbray, john? would never permit this incoherence and what the policy is and what they're going to take and. >> less question about this topic. based on reporting, what you've been behind the scenes, how do you think the president is willing to go? >> when i talked to the president in the summer on this committee acknowledged quite openly as bad politics for he and democrats to say we are going to cut medicare beneficiaries. he then went on and i think in the end, you can't be president and not be a realist. he said isn't tenable to not cut them because they are driving the budget deficit. the whole entitlement issue is the real core of this problem. a taxing issue, yes. the pyrotechnics. there's the struggle between the republican and democratic view. they all know it's the entitlement issue. so if you, but some some sort of fix, trajectory to make it somehow stable is the real issue. you have something from the boat. >> your books are ultimately about the power, how it's used, squandered, built s